Villains are great and all, driving conflict in a way only they can and giving more noble characters something to resist or fight against. A great bad guy (or gal) will often steal the show, but just as valuable is a heroic character for the audience to root for. If the villain’s great enough, the hero can admittedly be just about anyone, but if an equally compelling hero is placed against them, movie magic often ensues.

The following characters can all count themselves among the very best and most memorable heroes in movie history. They’re prominent characters within the films they’re featured in – usually the protagonists – and, even though some have their flaws, all show great bravery, go through interesting character arcs, or stand up against terrifying villains. Sometimes, they do all of the above, and are ranked below, from great to greatest.

25 Marge Gunderson

'Fargo' (1996)

Just about everyone in 1996’s Fargo is an idiot, but not in a way that makes the film itself feel stupid. The Coen Brothers were honestly kind of genius for tackling this sort of story and making it funny, tense, and ultimately strangely heartwarming, all the while having it feature greedy characters who scheme above their weight, and start ruining everything as a result. That is, until Marge Gunderson steps in and basically fixes everything.

She’s a determined Police Chief who steps in to investigate the entire series of events that transpired earlier, and it shifts the entire film, with a competent, clever, and good-natured character swiftly bringing an eventual end to Fargo. It’s satisfying seeing her take down some great (but, again, somewhat stupid) villainous characters, and that she also does all this while heavily pregnant just makes her even more admirable.

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24 Tony Stark/Iron Man

'Iron Man' (2008)

Tony Stark is an interesting hero among other superheroes, because he’s really not too far off being a villain when he’s first introduced in Iron Man. Okay, sure, he’s not evil necessarily, but he is self-centered and doesn’t seem to care too much about the effects his work as a weapons manufacturer has on the world. 2008’s Iron Man sees him have a change of heart (kind of in more ways than one), and over the next 10 years of MCU movies, he continually becomes more heroic.

This culminates in Avengers: Endgame, where it’s unequivocally apparent that Tony Stark is perhaps “the” hero of the MCU, or at least the one that all future main characters will be compared to. He never lost his sarcasm or willingness to be snarky, but the character arc he goes through in his first movie is impressive, and the one he undergoes across 10+ years of movies even more so.

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23 Zatoichi

The 'Zatoichi' series (1962-1989)

Zatoichi is the titular character of an iconic and long-running samurai movie series, though he himself is not a samurai; more a lone wanderer who possesses the skills various samurai warriors have. He devotes himself to wandering around Japan and helping different downtrodden people in just about every movie he appears in, even though he’s blind and without a true home, in the traditional sense.

Across 25 movies that were released between 1962 and 1973 (plus a 26th in 1989), Zatoichi helped too many people to count, and was consistently selfless while also being charming and rebellious in his own way. He’s also the kind of hero who doesn’t always resort to violence, given his high level of intelligence and ability to read what people are thinking/feeling, even without being able to lay eyes on them, on account of his blindness and all. But when situations get physical, few can fight their way out of such altercations armed with a sword quite like Zatoichi can.

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22 Harry Potter

The 'Harry Potter' series (2001-2011)

A fantasy series that reigned supreme throughout the 2000s (and a little into the 2010s), there were a total of eight Harry Potter movies based on seven books, with the final book getting split into two movies, and was fashionable – not to mention profitable – at the time. The titular character is the undisputed hero of the whole thing, obviously, an unlikely chosen one who finds himself thrust into a magical world and at the center of a drastic battle between good and evil.

Harry grows considerably, both physically and emotionally, as the series progresses, with the entire saga also being something of an unusual coming-of-age story, beginning with Harry as an 11-year-old and ending with him almost being a young adult. He defies alarming odds and stands up to much evil throughout the series, being a positive role model and something of an inspiration both in the series' universe and outside it.

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21 Virgil Tibbs

'In the Heat of the Night' (1967)

In the Heat of the Night was a Best Picture-winning crime/mystery/drama movie from 1967, touching upon themes regarding justice and prejudice that were topical back then, and remain so to this day. Certain things it deals with prove complex, but the story is very straightforward as far as movies about murder investigations go, and it has a clear hero in protagonist Virgil Tibbs, played by Sidney Poitier in a career-best performance.

Tibbs is assigned to look into the story’s central murder, which has taken place in a town with some rather racist inhabitants who don’t take kindly to the fact that Tibbs is African-American. Yet he does his job despite the pushback, stands up to those who are particularly prejudiced, and does it all while being very charismatic, too (largely thanks to Poitier’s charisma and dominant screen presence as an actor).

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20 Frodo Baggins

'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy (2001-2003)

Epic movies don’t get much more epic than The Lord of the Rings trilogy, three films that add up to approximately nine hours of movie (or more like 11, if you watch the extended versions). There are numerous great characters throughout, and various different kinds of heroes. Aragon’s one of the best, as is Gandalf, and even someone more flawed like Boromir (who does redeem himself somewhat) stands as a memorable character.

But to pick the biggest and most prominent hero of the trilogy, one would have to turn to the hobbits. It might sting a bit to put Samwise Gamgee in second place (he might be the best companion/sidekick of all time), but it is Frodo Baggins who ultimately has to sacrifice the most before eventually saving Middle Earth. Despite his size, he braves the odds of his perilous journey and allows the epic trilogy to end on a triumphant – albeit slightly bittersweet – note.

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19 Will Kane

'High Noon' (1952)

The Western genre was one typically filled with clear heroes and villains, though revisionist Westerns eventually became popular, and started to make things a little more realistic, not to mention murkier morally. High Noon, as an early revisionist Western, does get a little darker than some others of its time, but nevertheless features a clear hero – not to mention an admirable one – in Marshal Will Kane.

A character John Wayne was considered for, it’s certainly for the best that the role ended up going to Gary Cooper, because it feels like the sort of character Cooper was born to play. The film sees him struggling to get anyone to help him deal with an oncoming threat (a criminal seeking vengeance on Kane), forcing him to stand his ground and take on the film’s villains alone. As far as Western movie characters defying the odds and boldly facing adversaries go, few do it more heroically than Will Kane. Do not forsake him (oh my darling) indeed.

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18 Foxy Brown

'Foxy Brown' (1974)

Pam Grier’s basically the epitome of cool, and especially so during the 1970s, thanks to starring roles in iconic action/crime films like Coffy and Foxy Brown. Of the two, the latter sees Grier playing the most iconic lead character of her career (besides perhaps Jackie Brown, a couple of decades later), with Foxy Brown being about the titular character taking revenge and wiping out some vicious mobsters in the process.

It was even less common to see women front and center in action/crime movies back in the 1970s, so Foxy Brown was likely revolutionary for the time, and much of it feels like it still holds up to this day. The film might have some flaws, but seeing Grier take no prisoners and fight back against criminals is a blast to watch, with the character and Pam Grier being the two main reasons Foxy Brown is worth watching.

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17 Norma Rae

'Norma Rae' (1979)